NEW YORK
Times Union
By Robert Gavin Tuesday, May 9, 2017
ALBANY — A former Emma Willard student who revealed allegations of sexual abuse and a cover-up at the school last year on Tuesday questioned Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to passing a law to end a five-year statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.
Kat Sullivan, who said she was raped by a teacher at Emma Willard in 1998 and shipped away to New Orleans, called child sexual abuse a “pandemic” that needs to be addressed this year with the passing of the Child Victims Act.
The bill would end the statute of limitations civilly as well as criminally, create a one-year retroactive window for survivors over 23 to sue and end a 90-day notice of claim for public institutions that the sponsors say now shields the facilities from lawsuits.
The bill has been pushed in Albany for 10 years. Cuomo backed its passage in his State of the State in January, saying survivors of the abuse deserve justice.
“I have been following Gov. Cuomo and his statements in the newspapers very carefully and I read promises in the newspapers to prioritize the Child Victims Act, which gave me hope he would be a champion,” Sullivan told reporters in a packed news conference in the Legislative Office Building, where she was joined by lawmakers, advocates and other victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.